The invention relates to a remote control device for a motor vehicle for operating electrical appliances, such as a garage door opener or lighting, with at least one manual activation device and a transmitter that emits electromagnetic signals, wherein the transmitted signals can be received by a remote receiver and operate an electric motor drive or other electrical appliances.
The transmitters in this context are usually designed as separate units and are equipped with an activation device, generally in the form of one or more switch buttons for the relevant electrical appliance. When the transmitter is activated via the relevant activation device, it emits electromagnetic signals which are received and detected, for example by the receiver of a door operator. When such signals are transmitted by the appropriate transmitter, the corresponding operator is activated, and the door is opened or closed.
Since such transmitters, installed in hand-held units, can be accommodated in a variety of locations inside the vehicle or in articles of clothing, a certain amount of searching is often required in order to be able to use the remote control device. Consequently, DE 195 05 924 A 1 has already proposed a transmitter for vehicles that radiates electromagnetic signals wherein the remote control unit is designed as a unit built into a vehicle that can operated by the driver or other occupants and is connected to the transmitter.
Thus, it has also been proposed to design such remote control units for garage doors so that the transmitter in question is located inside the vehicle.
EP 0,689,963 B 1 discloses a garage door control with an electric transmitter that is accommodated inside the mirror housing in the interior of the vehicle. The mirror housing has a storage space for at least one part of a garage control wherein the storage space can be closed with a cover that is detachably joined to the mirror housing and together with the other part of the housing forms the complete mirror housing, wherein the cover is permeable to signals emitted by the garage door controller, and the garage door controller itself has a transmitter for the signals.
EP 0,689,964 A 1 also relates to a remote interface control unit to control opening and closing of garage doors which can be accommodated in a recess in the vehicle top or in a recess in the sun visor connected to the vehicle top, when the sun visor is in its stored position. Alternatively, it has been proposed to design the remote interface control unit such that takes on the shape of part of the sun visor and is attached to the vehicle top such that the remote control unit encloses part of the sun visor.
A device for controlling various vehicle functions and a garage door opener is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,415. In addition to a remote control device for the vehicle functions, the device also contains a remote control for the garage door opener. Both remote controls communicate via radio with a transceiver, which is located in the vehicle interior, for example on the interior mirror, and sends appropriately coded RF signals to the garage door opener
The problem in use of such control units is that when they are located in the interior of a vehicle as described, the transmitter output is significantly degraded since vehicles increasingly use metallized windows which significantly reduce range or make radio transmission impossible.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to develop a remote control device, wherein the transmitter can be installed in or on the vehicle, independently of the manual activation switch, in such a way as to ensure that the transmitter has the necessary range for operating the garage door opener.